Softie (Review)
As a lover of both creepy stories and point and click games, Softie was an intriguing premise - a horror adventure game where you play the role of a stuffed teddy bear, looking for their lost owner. It’s the perfect combination of cute and creepy, with a veneer of innocence.
At the start of the game, not much seems too amiss. Softie wakes up in the attic, surrounded by other toys - a doll missing its eye, a jack-in-the-box with plenty of spirit, and a little virtual pet that you can feed and play with for a moment before continuing on. Softie hasn’t seen their owner in awhile, but they’re determined to find her. However, for whatever normalcy seems to have survived in the attic, the house tells a different story. Everything is eerily quiet, with the exception of lamenting toys and some dangerous wandering… heads?
Before anything else, I do want to be clear that this is definitely a horror game, and it has some very disturbing imagery in it. I won’t share screenshots or spoilers regarding some of that material, but if you struggle with disturbing imagery, this is something you’ll want to consider before playing.
Softie plays like your standard point and click, and is pretty easy to get the hang of. I thought the puzzles were all fairly intuitive, and players who explore their surroundings shouldn’t have much trouble finding their way through this short, uncomfortable story.
What did surprise me was that there are a few chase scenes in the game - and you can definitely die. It took me a little to get used to making my way to safety down an obstacle-cluttered path, for sure - especially as point and click games tend to use the same controls to move as they do to interact. After a few tries, however, I got there. While you can die, the game is pretty lenient in just starting you back before that moment, so you can reevaluate your decisions or try a section again without hassle or backtracking.
I do wish the game had been a little longer to see more of the backstory - the story was dark and disturbing, and I’d have loved to explore it further. However, I think for the price, Softie definitely is a worthwhile little experience with plenty of love and feeling behind it. Overall, the game took me roughly an hour to play, including having to start over on my PC when I realized my laptop touchpad was not going to be my friend during the previously-mentioned chase sequence.
The developer, Kristina S, has a few more titles available on itch.io if you’re looking for more after your foray into Softie. I’m definitely interested to see what’s up next someday as well.
